In a wide variety of applications, containers are required to accommodate articles therein during shipping or storage, with the containers serving as a housing to provide protection to the articles therein. Traditionally, a container suitable for accommodating the article to be shipped is assembled at the site of the shipper, and the container is shipped back empty to the original shipper.
For instance, a manufacturer of diagnostic equipment components may regularly ship a supply of components to manufacturers or end users of the diagnostic equipment for incorporation into the diagnostic equipment. Shipping containers, specifically designed to accommodate one or more pieces of diagnostic equipment are produced for shipping the diagnostic equipment to the manufacturer or end user. Following receipt of a piece of diagnostic equipment in its shipping container at the manufacturer or end user, the container is opened and the transmission removed. The issue then becomes what to do with the container. Since the cost of producing a suitable replacement container generally exceeds the cost of shipping the container back to its original shipper for reuse, in current practice, the empty containers are shipped back to their original supplier so that the containers may be reused for subsequent shipping of other pieces of diagnostic equipment in the container.
The containers, which may be considerably large in size, occupy considerable space when being transported empty. The considerable space which such empty containers occupy on the vehicle returning the empty containers to the transmission manufacturer results in the expenditure of considerable shipping costs.
The containers typically employed are wooden crates which are assembled by nailing and/or screwing together a plurality of wooden panels. To significantly reduce the space which such containers occupy on their return to the original shipper, it is known to remove the nails and/or screws and disassemble the containers. The panels may then be stacked directly atop one another during their return to the original shipper, to minimize space requirements. Upon receipt of the disassembled panels by the original shipper, the panels are again nailed or screwed together to produce a shipping container. A considerable number of man-hours are required to be expended in assembling and disassembling the containers. Skilled laborers are generally utilized to assemble the containers, to assure that the nails and/or screws are properly driven, and thereby assure that the container is structurally sound. Such skilled labor, and the man-hours required to reassemble the containers, results in the expenditure of considerable costs.
There is a need for a container which is collapsible and reusable, whereby the container may be easily and quickly assembled and disassembled manually, without the use of skilled labor. There is a need for such a container which is fully self-contained so that the container may be easily assembled and disassembled without the use of external fasteners or engaging elements. The container should have sufficient structural integrity when assembled to withstand the impact forces associated with shipping. The side panels of the container should be nestable with one another when the container is disassembled to minimize the space requirements for return of the empty container for its reuse.